Alright, I'm done fishing for a bit. Kudos to those anglers, and yeah particularly to the fly rodders, that have done well the last week in the Jersey surf. There's been big fish around and if you played it right you probably caught a fish or two, and maybe even a personal best. The fish have been particularly large, first on adult bunker, and now on the early exiting peanut bunker. Peanuts are always better as they tend to ride the beach and if not can get pushed in by the marauding bass.
I like to fish alone. I know that. Now on days like Monday the crowd came in but that was after I was on the beach pretty much alone with just a guy or two. Somehow that just works in my brain. Even last Saturday when the bass were on big bunker, yes out a bit, there was only few anglers on them. What I can't do, which probably contributes to my continuing skunk, is follow the reports or the bite, and arrive
to find the crowd set, and continuing to build as quitting time gets closer. I'm out on that. That might not be a smart way to fish, but it's not the way I roll. I especially loathe fishing with spin anglers, most of them all great people I am sure. Watching them launch and hook up out a ways just kills me. Imagine going hunting, I have never hunted, and you are all quiet and stealthy tip toeing through the woods with your bow and arrow at the ready, and your boy next to you blasts two shots from his 12 guage shotgun and kills a big buck 300 yards a way? Kind of a bummer. In truth I don't even know if a shotgun can shoot 300 yards, but you get my drift.
So I jetted from work and was down on the beach just before three o'clock. I was surprised to only see a handful of guys on the beach where yesterday it was going good. There were also plenty of spots available to park. But I drove past to another, well, well known spot, and thought that might be a good spot for the fly rod as there a building SSW wind and a pretty good swell with quick sets. The wind
was forecast to be SW at 7 mph but I think they were off a bit. So I pulled in and found lots of participation as seen in the very top image. (Again, as with any photos in this blog clicking on them will make them larger.) It kinda killed my plan. But I went out and took a peek. There were anglers pretty much lined up from my right to my left, in front of me, and my left to my right. I watched for about 10 minutes and saw four fish caught.
These were not the jumbos crashing bait that I have seen in the last five days, these were the 28-35" perfect fly rod fish I hope for. With my thinking that the crowds were only going to build I decided to go and "find my own fish". You know the old saying, "Never leave fish to find fish", but these weren't my fish anyways. Before I left I spoke with a guy who had a 40 pound fish this morning a few towns south and when he saw the line along the beach he said he was going back to his original spot. "I don't do crowds", he added. So I went south figuring I could find something that looked promising. At a few
stops I didn't find the bait or the fish, nor the crowds. I know that at any minute things could turn for the better but I really just wanted to fish and hope something would pop up in front of me.
I went back to where I was yesterday, where I had found bait and bass, but didn't really have a shot at them. I tucked in under the shadows of some condos to block me from the sun which had temps almost into the 80's today. Warm weather means south winds, and I see that the winds are coming from the south, to south west, to west, to northwest starting tomorrow through the weekend. West is best, at least they say. That theory kinda went out the window during the last week from time to time.
Leif had left work and was heading down to fish and I thought it would be nice to catch up and maybe catch a few fish together. We're the "Dinkmaster's", pretty good at catching small fish, so maybe we'd hold true and find some of the tots coming in for a meal. We decided on staying home, even though his son Leif was filling us in on the action up near where I started my afternoon.
I picked on one groin and he another to get our twilight bassin' on. Well, let's just say sometimes you just have to fall in line and fish, literally. Sometimes where you find the fishermen you will find the fish, because they had found the bait, and the bass. Not me, I'll show them and find my own, well barren sea in front of me, and Leif as well.
But it was fishy water we casted into and if there was someone home or stopping for a snoop I think we would have caught, something. But my skunk continues. Even as the sun set and the water seemed
to flatten out I was hopeful. Maybe the bait would pop up or a bird just pause over something for a second, even at least to have a target to throw to. But it wasn't to be, not tonight, and it won't be tomorrow morning. I had planned to fish because I was off but I'm nixing that plan. I hope to not get any text from my buds letting me know, "You should have been here".
After calling it an afternoon and ready to take that ride-of-shame drive west I pulled out the camera to take a look at some of the pics I had captured. I did have some cool shots of fish going off just off the beach 1/2 north of where I was at on one of my earlier spots. I had a little flurry in front of me but it was on the top of the swelly waves and out of range, plus there was that south to north sweep going on. I was zoomed and looking through the lens when a bass blew out of the water with my finger on the trigger but I'll never know if I captured that moment. I didn't load the film (CF card) into the camera.
On the way home proud papa Leif shared this pic his son had sent him of a nice 33 inch bass that he had landed. It seems there is now a flurry of "normal" sized fish moving in. Not the schoolies but those nice slot to just above slot sized fish. It's nice when the big fish are in because they all have to go back in. But now with slot sized fish around you'll no doubt see dead fish on the beach as anglers legally harvest that one for the table.
Leif shared this pic of a larger dead bass he found near the rocks after going belly up and getting beat up by the waves before finding the beach scarp as it's final resting place. Get ready for those 28-32 " fish to join them laying on a beach soon near you.
